Minimizing the downtime of a machine tool in a production environment is critical to the success of a manufacturing facility. Historically, one major contributor to such downtime was the time needed to change damaged or worn out cutting tools used by the machine tool. A cutting tool is held by a toolholder, which is typically mounted within a tool support member secured to a machine tool. When the cutting tool must be replaced, the entire toolholder with the cutting tool is removed from the spindle. A number of commercial couplings permit quick connecting and disconnecting of the toolholder to and from the spindle to expedite the tool changing process. One such device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,659 entitled “Apparatus for Holding a Toolholder Shank.” This patent is co-owned by the Assignee of the present application and is hereby incorporated by reference. The apparatus described in that patent utilizes two locking balls which are urged radially outwardly within a tool support member to engage apertures on the shank of a toolholder. While this arrangement is efficient and permits the toolholder to be removed or secured to a tool support member in a short amount of time, the design of this arrangement may limit its application to toolholders having a width of one inch or greater. Since many industrial applications require the use of a cutting tool which must be mounted on a much smaller toolholder, a need exists for a quick change toolholder system for toolholders which may be designed having a width of less than one inch.
Such a system must not only have a compact design, but furthermore, provide quick connecting and disconnecting of the toolholder from the toolholder support member in an efficient manner that makes it practical for use by a machine tool operator.
The system described hereinafter is a quick change tooling system by which a toolholder is secured with a tool support member utilizing simple hardware that permits the size of the toolholder and toolholder support member to be significantly reduced over other commercially available quick change tool systems.